What is the most secure mobile device?

silentrust

Just following on from the main thread on PRISM, RIM has recently allowed the Indian government to intercept e-mails, chat logs and internet history sent on personal Blackberry devices.

There's no suggestion that this has happened yet in Europe but now other governments know this is technically feasible I think it might just be a matter of time.

As such I was wondering what the best way would be to secure your mobile device against this possibility?

I imagine that for starters it would be best to have your own mail server but of course that's only any good if you can make sure your device has no backdoor built into it to make it divulge confidential information at the drop of a hat!

I would imagine the most sensible setup would be an Android phone like a Samsung Galaxy running Cynaogen Mod or the Replicant OS - would that combined with sending e-mails via GPG be secure enough in everyone's opinion?

Very interested to hear your thoughts on this.

alan4cult

https://heml.is/

Piratebay founder is creating this, not a device but an end-to-end encrypted messenger.

soirish

Depends what type of vulnerability you want to address. Using Skype on iphone or blackberry isn't too much different.
Here is an article by the guy who developed PGP
http://theverge.com/2013/2/6/3950664/phil-zimmermann-wants-to-save-you-from-your-phone

silentrust

soirish wrote: »

Depends what type of vulnerability you want to address. Using Skype on iphone or blackberry isn't too much different.
Here is an article by the guy who developed PGP
http://theverge.com/2013/2/6/3950664/phil-zimmermann-wants-to-save-you-from-your-phone

Thanks SoIrish - I have heard of SilentCircle but was put off by the fact that the source code hasn't been released for peer review so we only have Zimmerman's et. al's word for it that there's no backdoor - the subscription model once again undermines anonymity unless they start accepting a cryptocurrency like Bitcoins!

As you say though, Skype wouldn't be much good if Microsoft have given the government a backdoor to their servers but then again if you're using an application like Redphone which ostensibly encrypts your VOIP calls securely and your OS/device itself has a hidden backdoor then it may be possible to retrieve the call logs and/or the encryption keys negotiated for each call.

I suppose by way of focus I was thinking about the most secure mobile device in terms of device encryption, sending e-mails and web browsing, which seem to be the areas the Indian government are targeting. Many thanks for your thoughts on this.

soirish

- IPradator VPN service by the Pirate Bay.
- FixTracking
- Don't disregard good old Nokia phones made before 2010

silentrust

soirish wrote: »

- IPradator VPN service by the Pirate Bay.
- FixTracking
- Don't disregard good old Nokia phones made before 2010

Thanks chief, I am planning on using BTGuard which has been recommended by Isohunt, mainly because they accept payment in Bitcoins. Of course they all claim not to keep any records but there's no harm in being cautious! :-)